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Monday, March 18, 2013

Pain a l’ancienn Recipe

I love baking bread using this recipe. It represents the perfect
balance between work and results. If you try it, it will end up being
the gateway drug to more complicated bread recipes.

Don’t let the simplicity of the recipe fool you though, the bread is
amazingly good. The crumb is full of small holes, with a crust that is
chewy but not tough. The long, overnight rise gives the bread a complex
flavor. Letting the entire batch of dough sit all night gives the dough
plenty of time to relax and makes it a little easier to work with.
I usually bake two batches (four oven loads) of bread and freeze most
of it. We then take out a loaf or two and let it defrost in the fridge
whenever we need bread. There are many ways to shape the bread. The
simplest shape is to simply spread the dough out, cut it into strips and
then stretch those strips out. This time I shaped the dough into two,
slightly more complex shapes. The torpedo is perfect for cutting in half
horizontally and making sandwiches. You can also take the
torpedo-shaped dough and turn it into a baguette. These baguettes are a
little skinny, but are perfect for breakfast toast.
I like to spray the crusts of the bread with water before I place
them in the oven. It gives the crusts a bubbly, crisp crust. If you
don’t do this the breads will have a floury crust that also looks
awesome. I would try a mix of the two methods and see which you like
best.
This recipe produces a very wet dough. You are going to have to use a bit of flour when handling it. I got a Pastry Mat
, and I think it helps a bit. Another good tool to have is a large plastic tub or two to let the dough rise in overnight in the fridge. Lids are separate, don’t forget to order them. The final tool is a flexible bowl scrapper, which is great for dividing the dough and moving it around.
This recipe comes from The Bread Baker's Apprentice, an amazing book from Peter Reinhart. If
you like to bake, this is a book you must own. The recipe below doesn’t
do it justice because the recipe builds upon techniques taught earlier.
The book gives you detailed recipes for almost every style of bread out
there, along with the techniques you will need to make those breads. I
got my copy as a wedding gift from my friend Alex, thanks Alex! Teach a
man to bake and he will have bread for life!
This is a very forgiving recipe. Don’t worry if it looks complicated,
you can leave steps out, get a little sloppy and still get good
results. Instead of worrying about the water temperature for the dough, I
just use cold tap water. Instead of fumbling with a pan of water in the
oven, I just spray down the sides of the oven. It is more important to
try this recipe than worry about its exacting details.

Combine the flour, salt, yeast and 19 ounces of water in the bowl of
the electric mixer with the paddle attachment and mix for 2 minutes on
low speed. Switch to the dough hook and mix for 5 to 6 minutes on medium
speed.

The dough should be sticky on the bottom of the bowl, but it should
release from the sides of the bowl. If not, sprinkle in a small amount
of flour until this occurs (or dribble in water if the dough seems too
stiff and clears the bottom as well as the sides of the bowl).

Lightly oil a large bowl and immediately transfer the dough with a
spatula or bowl scraper dipped in water into the bowl. Mist the top of
the dough with spray oil and cover the bowl with plastic wrap.

Immediately place the bowl in the refrigerator and retard overnight.

Day 2

The next day, check the dough to see if it has risen in the
refrigerator. It will probably be partially risen but not doubled in
size (the amount of rise will depend on how cold the refrigerator is and
how often the door was opened). Leave the bowl of dough out at room
temperature for 2 to 3 hours (or longer if necessary) to allow the dough
to wake up, lose its chill, and continue fermenting.

When the dough has doubled from its original pre-refrigerated size,
liberally sprinkle the counter with bread flour (about 1/2 cup). Gently
transfer the dough to the floured counter with a plastic dough scraper
that has been dipped in cold water, dipping your hands as well to keep
the dough from sticking to you. Try to degas the dough as little as
possible as you transfer it. If the dough is very wet, sprinkle more
flour over the top as well as under it. Dry your hands thoroughly and
then dip them in flour.

Roll the dough gently in the sprinkled flour to coat it thoroughly,
simultaneously stretching it into an oblong about 8 inches long and 6
inches wide. If it is too sticky to handle, continue sprinkling flour
over it. Dip a metal pastry scraper into cool water to keep it from
sticking to the dough, and cut the dough in half widthwise with the
pastry scraper by pressing it down through the dough until it severs it,
then dipping it again in the water and repeating this action until you
have cut down the full length of the dough. (Do not use this blade as a
saw; use it as a pincer, pinching the dough cleanly with each cut.) Let
the dough relax for 5 minutes. Shape the dough pieces using one or more of the techniques below.

Prepare the oven for hearth baking by placing a pizza stone or baking tile on the a rack set to the second lowest position. (Optional: Set an empty pan for steam on a rack set below this.)

Preheat the oven to 500°F (550°F if your oven goes this high).

Take 1 pan to the preheated oven and carefully slide the dough,
parchment and all, onto the baking stone (depending on the direction of
the stone, you may choose to slide the dough and parchment off the side
of the sheet pan instead of off the end); or bake directly on the sheet
pan. Make sure the pieces aren’t touching (you can reach in and
straighten the parchment or the dough strips if need be).

(Optional: Pour 1 cup of hot water into the steam pan and close the door.)

After 30 seconds, spray the oven walls with water and close the
door. Repeat twice more at 30-second intervals. After the final spray,
reduce the oven setting to 475°F and continue baking. Meanwhile, dust
the other pan of dough strips with flour, mist with spray oil, and cover
with a towel or plastic wrap. If you don’t plan to bake these strips
within 1 hour, refrigerate the pan and bake later or the next day. If
you’d like to bake them as rustic, ciabatta-style breads, leave them at
room temperature for 1 to 2 hours and then bake. As the loaves proof,
they will resemble and perform like ciabatta.

The bread should begin to turn golden brown within 8 or 9 minutes.
If the loaves are baking unevenly at this point, rotate them 180
degrees. Continue baking 10 to 15 minutes more, or until the bread is a
rich golden brown and the internal temperature registers at least 205°F.

Transfer the hot breads to a cooling rack. They should feel very
light, almost airy, and will cool in about 20 minutes. While these are
cooling, you can bake the remaining loaves, remembering to remove the
parchment from the oven and turn the oven up to 500°F or higher before
baking the second round.

Shaping:Basic

Take one of the dough pieces and repeat the cutting action, but this
time cut off three equal-sized lengths. Then do the same with the
remaining half. This should give you six lengths.

Cover the back of two 17-by-12-inch sheet pans with baking parchment and dust with semolina flour or cornmeal.

Flour your hands and carefully lift one of the dough strips and
transfer it to an inverted parchment-lined pan, gently pulling it to the
length of the pan or to the length of your baking stone. If it springs
back, let it rest for 5 minutes and then gently pull it out again. Place
three strips on the pan, and then prepare another pan and repeat with
the remaining strips.

Score the dough strips as for baguettes, slashing the tops with
three diagonal cuts. Because the dough is sticky, you may have to dip
the razor blade, serrated knife or scissors in water between each cut.
You may also omit the cuts if the dough isn’t cooperating.

Torpedo

Take one of the dough pieces and repeat the cutting action, but this
time cut off three equal-sized lengths. Then do the same with the
remaining half. This should give you six lengths.

Cover the back of two 17-by-12-inch sheet pans with baking parchment and dust with semolina flour or cornmeal.

Flour your hands and transfer one of the dough pieces to a well floured area. Gently pat the dough into a rough rectangle.

Without degassing the piece of dough, fold the bottom third of
dough, letter style, up to the center and press to seal, creating
surface tension on the outer edge.

Fold the remaining dough over the top.

Use your hand to seal the seam closed and to increase the surface tension all over.

Flip the dough over and fold the very ends of the piece, pinching to close.

Flip the dough back over so that the seam is on the bottom and set aside to rise or shape into a baguette.

Baguette

Shape the pieces as torpedos and allow them to rest for 5 minutes.

Lift the dough and gently pull it out from the ends.

Crease the dough down the middle.

Fold the top part of the dough down over the bottom part.

Use your hand to seal the seam closed and to increase the surface tension all over.

Working from the center of the loaf and moving towards the edges,
gently but firmly rock and roll out the dough to extend it to the
desired length.

If the dough is too elastic and springs back to less than the desired length, allow it to rest for another 5 minutes.

1 comment:

They are really wonderful breads!Bake them every week, since 4 years, my hottest seller. I replace 10% bread flour with whole rye, and, also, add a little rye sourdough.Shaping is really a bit of overkill, cutting in slices works just fine with this highly hydrated dough.